Medically assisted dying – also known as voluntary euthanasia – accounted for 4.7 percent of deaths in Canada in 2023, new government data shows.

The country's fifth annual report since euthanasia was legalized in 2016 showed around 15,300 people underwent assisted dying last year after being successful in their applications, the BBC reported.

The median age of this group was more than 77.

The massive majority – some 96 percent - had a death deemed "reasonably foreseeable," due to severe medical conditions such as cancer.

Canada is among a few countries that have introduced assisted dying laws in the last 10 years. Others include Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Austria the BBC said.

More than 320,000 people died in Canada in 2023, and 15,300 of those deaths - about one in 20 - were medically assisted.

In Canada, consenting adults can seek medical assistance in dying from a healthcare provider if they have a serious and permanent medical condition.

Provisions in place, include having two independent healthcare providers confirm that the patient is eligible before their request is approved.

Around 96 percent of recipients for assisted dying identified as being white people who account for around 70 percent of Canada's population.

The second most reported ethnic group was east Asians (making up 1.8 percent), who account for about 5.7 percent of Canadians.

Canada's assisted deaths are growing, but the country is outpaced by the Netherlands, where euthanasia accounted for around 5 percent of total deaths in 2023.

In Britain, members of parliament voted in late November to pass a similar bill that gives terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to have an assisted death, although the BBC reported, it will face months of further scrutiny before it can become law.

"Please be in prayer for the Lord to intervene in the lives of those considering medically assisted suicide," Faithwire pleaded on Dec. 17.

The wire said that medically assisted suicide is currently legal in 10 U.S. states — Maine, New Jersey, Vermont, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, and Hawaii — and Washington, D.C.

Concerns have been recently that regulators are not effectively policing the country's euthanasia program.

"A bombshell report in November alleged that out of hundreds of violations of the country's controversial euthanasia law over the course of several years, none of them had been reported to law enforcement," reported Catholic News Agency on Dec. 12.

Al Jazeera reported that back in 2016, assisted suicide and euthanasia were legalizd in Canada and the term medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was coined for both methods of administering death.

"MAiD was sold to Canadians as a humane way to end the lives of consenting adults who were experiencing intolerable suffering," Ramona Coelho wrote in an opinion piece in Al Jazeera back in February.

The Al Jazeera piece cited "numerous alarming stories" about MAiD abuses that are emerging from Canada "that should give us pause."

It cites Rosina Kamis who it said explains in her recordings and her writings that she was driven to MAiD by loneliness and poverty.